Dwight

I had a guy want me to make him a 53 inch cowboy belt . . . took a while to make it . . . He needed a 56 when he came to pick it up. Fortunately I was able to salvage the job by making a new tongue and installing it for him free of charge. May God bless, Dwight

Sometimes something is staring you in the face . . . and you cannot see it. I never gave a thought to how it could be arranged to work out right like that. Just thought ya stamped it and bordered it . . . and ya was done. That's part of why I never messed with it before . . . when I did try the results were much less than stellar . . . Thanks again . . . may God bless, Dwight

Hmmm . . . never gave it a thought. Just set my square on the leather . . . went down the 45 side . . . started knocking out the stamps. Good to know tht there is a better way. NOW . . . other than the little half circle star like stamp I used . . . is there any other "border" tool that is normally used??? Sounds picky . . . but I hate doing the same old thing . . . every time . . . like a bit of spice or difference. I've got a deer hoof print tool and a butterfly print tool . . . both of which I hand made . . . will never be used again . . . but was fun using them the first time. Both made belts that went out as "One of............" belts. One of em went to my sister I lost this year. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks to every one who replied . . . and I was wondering about rotating the pattern. I tried to look and figure out what angle most folks did their stamping at . . . kinda thought it was close to 45 degrees . . . so I grabbed my carpenter's square . . . laid it on the leather . . . and drug my stamping tool down along the edge to get two parallel lines at a 45 degree angle. Do most of you stamp at a different angle? As for the deeper / shallower impressions . . . 76 year old hands . . . doing something they never trained for earlier. Now if I could do the impressions with a lever action .22 or a semi auto military rifle . . . or a Remington typewriter . . . they would be spot on. AND . . . I had to get up and drag my $1.25 per pair . . . dollar store . . . seeing eye cheaters so I could see where that stamp was going to land. Man I hate wearing those things. I'll look up for my coffee . . . or to check on a sound . . . and my whole world goes to the "big blur" thru those dollar store cheaters. But again . . . thanks to you all for your advice and encouragement . . . the project is taking shape rather well . . . I didn't charge the guy enough for it . . . but I'm not planning on making a career out of these things anyway. But I do enjoy the challenge of a "one of a kind" leather project. Done many of them . . . hope to do more. May God bless, Dwight

Well . . . I went out to my shop . . . thinking I had a couple of old basket weave stamps I got years ago from Tandy. Watched a video on "how to" . . . and started messing with it. Would just like you guys that do this . . . give me an honest . . . brutal if necessary . . . assessment of the second thing I did a basket weave on. It is a box that will be folded up and the basket weave follow around the sides. I'll post pictures of the finished project in a week or two . . . depending on how long it takes. I thought I had it today . . . found out I left out one of the really important pieces . . . this box I stamped. Thanks. . . . may God bless, Dwight

I tried that years ago . . . found out it was a losing proposition. Make up representative belts "for show" . . . but not for stock. If you are well set up . . . you can get an order today . . . and ship it tomorrow . . . only one days difference from pulling it from stock. All you need is the leather properly oiled and dyed . . . cut to some 55 inch length or whatever your cow's side will allow you to cut them. You simply then grab two pieces the same color . . . work out the ends . . . glue em together . . . punch the holes . . . sew em . . . and put the final finish on it . . . and go to bed. Get up the next morning . . . pack and ship it. Your customer's will not know nor care the difference of one day. And you will not have them hanging there taking up space. I actually still have one unsold belt in my closet . . . will one day drop it off to the salvation army. May God bless, Dwight

I would use a drill bit that is right at the diameter of the rivets in the top photo. I would use a brand new one . . . super sharp . . . and I would not get in any kind of hurry at all. You might even go in on the backside . . . use a drywall screw to keep it from turning . . . hold the drywall screw with a pair of pliers . . . and I'd do this in a drill press if you have that option. I've drilled out bunches of rivets from time to time . . . because of the dryness of the leather . . . it has probably shrunk . . . the rivet will spin if the drill big catches it . . . just be careful. May God bless, Dwight

Make sure you post a picture when it is done . . . and don't forget to put plenty of beads on the flap . . . showing outside. Wouldn't want anyone to think your idea was "blowing in the wind" May God bless, Dwight

Actually, Scootch . . . just a common basket weave will do for me. Being as honest as I can . . . I'd rather hand sew a 55 inch gun belt . . . than stamp anything. I've never been able to really get much more than a couple patterns to work like I want them to. And that is only a basic border stamping. I have a "one of a kind" project for a Texan . . . he wanted it to have a Texas flavor to it . . . and I just wanted to basket weave some of the smaller parts . . . but the cheap garbage Tandy stamps I've got . . . won't do it . . . and just as soon as I get a decent one or two . . . they're liable to wind up being ballast for the local garbage truck. Thanks to all of you for your suggestions . . . one of them will probably work out . . . Sergey and Barry King will get my attention for the time being . . . and we'll go from there. May God bless, Dwight

Well J W . . . I'm gonna have to go against some of the grain here. I use pure neatsfoot oil . . . the compound is junk in my opinion . . . good for oiling chainsaws maybe . . . nothing more. I use only veg tan leather for the products I make . . . for the most part they are vacuum formed . . . sometimes hand formed . . . then allowed to fully . . . and I mean FULLY dry. I even have a drying box I occasionally use . . . max temp is 140 F . . . a couple hours in there dries them out really good. When I know it is dry . . . I get my 1 inch Harbor Freight bristle brush out . . . and my open container of neatsfoot oil. I put only 1 wet application . . . I go up and down the project . . . making sure every square inch of the hair side is covered and changes color from dry to wet . . . and I do not add any more than that. It then gets hung up to dry . . . not in the heat cabinet . . . just in my shop that is nominally 72 degrees year round. The next day (at least 24 hours later) it gets dyed . . . and I dip dye everything I possibly can . . . especially holsters, sheaths, and belts. My dye is Feibings oil dye . . . cut 50/50 with Feibings dye thinner. After dying . . . I paper towel off any pooling dye on the surface. Belts get laid in a circle on a piece of cardboard . . . and allowed to dry about 10 minutes . . . then I flip them over on the other edge to finish drying the next 24 hours. Holsters and sheaths are laid on their backsides on a similar piece of cardboard . . . it had had multiple treatments of resolene over the years . . . so dye does not leech out into the cardboard. I then apply my final coating which is virtually always Resolene . . . thinned 50/50 with water. This is the process I found that works the best for me. I ruined a few projects "back when" by not oiling my work first . . . especially when I was using Saddle Tan dye. It is one finicky dye . . . and I found without the oil . . . I might as well trash the work 75 to 85 percent of the time. Again . . . it is the process that works for me . . . maybe different from others . . . but the important thing to do is figure out what works for you . . . and stick to it. I've even got me a little reminder note stuck up by my dye pans . . . reminding me I need to oil stuff first. May God bless, Dwight

I have a couple of junk basket weave tools that may become fishing weights or something. I have read in the past that there are some really good ones out there . . . especially one that has little "horns" on each end . . . line em up and your spacing is always perfect one person said. I just need someone to point me in the right direction as to where to buy them . . . have a basket weave job coming up . . . ain't using the junk tools any more. Will pass the job if nothing else. May God bless, Dwight

My old standby for everything pretty much is Weldwood Contact Cement. I fixed the sole coming off my sneakers with it. May God bless, Dwight

Here is the mold I made for a S&W 29 . . . Worked for his project. May God bless, Dwight

I had the same problem with a blue steel S&W 29 a few years back . . . 6 in bbl. I made a model out of pine . . . took me a couple hours . . . Revolvers do not usually get as finely molded as do semi auto's . . . My customer just smiled like he just won the lottery when I handed him the holster and he slipped his 29 in it. He was happy as a lark. They are not that hard to do if you are even half baked handy with woodworking. I'll get a picture of it later and put it on here for you. May God bless, Dwight

Because I'm a cheap skate . . . I'd make one . . . give it 4 or 5 dip coats in Mop N Glo . . . made 50/50 Mop N Glo and water. I'm thinking that would settle any problems out . . . other than being a little slippery and slidy May God bless, Dwight

It would be at least informative for others of us if we had pictures or drawings of these knots. I for one am always intrigued by mechanical things of this nature. May God bless, Dwight

I'd really be tempted to say your need is why buckles were invented. But I wish you the best on your venture. Personally I would split the leather and stuff the attachment part up in the middle of that split leather . . . with the metal scratched up real good with the corner of a file or something of that sort . . . and put it together with Weldwood Contact Cement. Contact cement on both sides of the metal . . . and both insides of the split leather. Best wishes . . . may God bless, Dwight

I don't mean to sound like a bully . . . but hobby lobby IS NOT THE PLACE to get good leather. Tandy is a much better place. When you go there . . . ask them if they have any vegetable tanned belly leather. it is compared to the rest . . . about THE cheapest . . . AND it will hold your impressions well enough to get you going. Obviously . . . follow the other suggestions about casing . . . etc. PLUS . . . get a good marble, stone, or if nothing else . . . a smooth cement backer on which to do your stampings. I use a cut off piece of a counter top . . . don't know what kind of stone it is . . . but it is stone . . . and it makes all the difference in the world when one is beginning to stamp. A table top, desk top, or counter top just gives too much here . . . not enough over there . . . way too much in that corner . . . etc. The stone stops all that garbage . . . helps you develop the proper stroke for what you are doing. The belly leather is softer than usual tooling leather . . . but it works for beginners to decide if they want to continue . . . and there can be some beautiful work done on belly leather. Best wishes and have fun. May God bless, Dwight

Don't know much about it . . . just recall my old barbers . . . always stropped the razor before cutting my neck hairs . . . Never saw them do anything to the strop but use it . . . it always worked to shave my neck. May God bless, Dwight

There may be Klara . . . but I've never found the perfect way . . . The topcoat finish, Resolene, is I believe the only one that has some kind of blocker for the sun's darkening nature. But with age . . . I believe even it cannot stop the darkening process. Look at older saddles . . . they'll tell the tale . . . none are very light after a number of years out there in the sunlight. May God bless, Dwight

If you go out of Olive Hill on 60 towards Morehead . . . just after the funeral home on the left . . . you'll see a bridge ahead going across Smith Run Creek. Follow that dude back up in the hills there for a couple miles . . . spent the first part of my life back up there . . . enjoyed every moment of it. Got dozens of cousins there of the Webb Clan . . . my grandfather was Will Webb . . . him an his brother Vince built the little Globe United Baptist Church there on 60 across from the flea market. My sister in law . . . Wilma Wells . . . worked at the bank for decades. We all go down to Walkers when I'm in town . . . I get their hamburger steak. It's a noisy place, but I like their food. It's a small world we live in . . . glad you made it here . . . holler if I can ever be of help. May God bless, Dwight

Well . . . let me jump in there and say I'm glad to have the opportunity to be the first to say "Well Done" I'm not a fan of OWB . . . but if I was . . . that one would be high on the list . . . if nothing else . . . a BBQ holster. Good job my friend . . . hope you eased thru that last hurricane. May God bless, Dwight

How close are you to Olive Hill? It's my "kinda sorta" home town . . . May God bless, Dwight

Well excuse me Dr. Fauci . . . sorry if I offended your "follow the science". Science is good . . . so far it has give us three immunization programs that seem to kill a few folks every now and then who only took the medicine. Science also allowed a rocket to blow up after launch back in 1986 killing the school teacher riding aboard. Both are unintended. AND . . . making your own leather conditioner may have "unintended" consequences. I simply attempted to warn someone who may not have known about the "possibility" of unintended consequences . . . and possibly help them avoid a situation they did not envision. But of course . . . you and the Lone Ranger rode in to save them from my layman's helpful warning . . . so good of you to do so. May God bless, Dwight

If you make this containing olive oil or almond oil . . . please understand that in time the product will go rancid and have to be thrown out. The reason is the oils you use. They are plant based oils . . . and will eventually rot, go rancid, stink . . . and make your product useless. The one oil that does not do that is neatsfoot oil. I have products made with neatsfoot oil that are over 10 years old . . . have never had a problem with it. I use natural bees wax that I personally took from my bee hives . . . and I use the more expensive 100% neatsfoot oil (not the cheap neatsfoot oil compound that contains other oils). I put them together in a jar . . . put the jar in a pan of boiling water . . . let them melt together . . . give it a couple stirs . . . pour it out into muffin papers. I use a scale and make it exactly a 1 to 1 ratio by weight. Adding a little more oil makes it softer . . . adding a little more wax makes it harder. Because my wax comes straight out of the bee hive . . . it has a slight honey smell to it. May God bless, Dwight